News
Local

Ministry suspends ED-19 approval

FILE PHOTO
Trash is compacted at the Cardinal landfill in this 2013 file photo. Residents of Edwardsburgh-Cardinal oppose a 'mega dump' site based on approvals sporting a 1998 environmental assessment.

Related Stories

The provincial environment ministry has pressed the pause button on any development of the ED-19 landfill site near Spencerville.

In a notice sent to the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, the ministry suspended its 20-year-old environmental approval of the landfill until its owner satisfies the government that ED-19 meets the requirements in the environmental approval certificate granted in 1998.

Kyle Johnston, leader of the Citizens Against the Dump that opposes the proposed sale of ED-19 to a private company, said his group is pleased by the ministry’s action.

“This is a good, interim step,” Johnston said. “They are clearly upset at the way the counties have been handling the file.”

Johnston said the ministry’s action in suspending an unused environment approval is unusual and it clearly bodes well for his group, but he said CAD will continue to press the government to revoke its 1998 approval of the site for good.

After years of studies and public hearings in the 1990s, the counties won government permission to develop a landfill site at ED-19 on June 24, 1998. But the counties never opened the landfill and the land lay dormant for almost 20 years. The counties recently started discussions to sell the site to a private landfill company, much to the alarm of residents who fear it would become a “mega-dump.”

Warden Robin Jones said the counties only recently received the letter from the ministry regarding the suspension of parts of the approval, and counties staff are discussing it with lawyers.

Jones said it is unclear whether the decree applies to the counties or only to any future owner of ED-19. She added that counties council has not yet had a chance to discuss the letter.

Johnston said the ultimate goal of his group is for the government to revoke its approval of ED-19 once and for all.

“We hope that this is just one step toward the final revocation of the entire environmental assessment,” Johnston said. “We want to put a nail in the coffin for once and for all.”

Johnston’s group’s lawyers have asked the environment minister to use his powers to revoke the Environmental Assessment Act approval of ED-19, or at least sent it to a tribunal for review.

CAD’s lawyers argue that conditions have changed dramatically since 1998 when the dump was approved, including new provincial policies, changed environmental conditions at the site and the lack of consultation with First Nations.

As well, the lawyers claim the entire premise of the original EAA approval is defunct because the counties never proceeded with the dump. The entire rationale for the dump, which was based on the counties’ need for municipal landfill capacity, has changed, the lawyers say.

Johnston said that the only people who appear to want the dump are counties council and Tomlinson Environment, which wants to buy it.

“It is our hope that counties council now begins to listen to the very serious concerns that have been raised by their MPP and their constituents over the past 10 months,” said Johnston, noting that Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark opposes ED-19.